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Alber Elbaz

Born in Casablanca and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, Alber Elbaz is a fashion designer and artistic director of the French fashion house Lanvin.

Elbaz studied fashion design in Israel, moving to New York in the late eighties to work with designer Geoffrey Beene. In 1996 he returned to Europe to take up the position of head designer at Guy Laroche. Then in 1998 he was personally selected by Yves Saint Laurent to succeed him as designer of the Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line.

When the house was acquired by the Gucci Group, Elbaz left Yves Saint Laurent having shown only three shows. He then designed a collection for the Italian house Krizia before his appointment to Lanvin in October 2001.

Importing a talent for drapery learned at Geoffrey Beene and a feeling for colour inherited from Yves Saint Laurent, Elbaz has raised the profile of France's oldest couture house. Having long declared his infatuation with the female form, he describes his role at Lanvin as 'armourer and empowerer' of women.